Senator Win Gatchalian on Tuesday lauded the Senate’s approval on third and final reading of a legislative measure aimed at expanding government educational vouchers to cover all tiers of basic education, from kindergarten through senior high school.
The proposed Basic Education Voucher Program Act seeks to broaden financial subsidies for students entering private academic institutions, effectively scaling up a system that currently heavily concentrates its resources on the senior high school bracket.
Gatchalian, who serves as a co-author and co-sponsor of the bill, emphasized that the refined mechanism is structured to put disadvantaged learners first.
“Sa pagpapalawak at pagpapatatag ng voucher program, hindi lang natin natutulungan ang mga pribadong paaralan. Mas lalo nating natutulungan ang mga mag-aaral na nangangailangan,” Gatchalian said in an official statement.
The passage of the bill comes on the heels of recent scrutiny regarding the distribution of state subsidies, after reports surfaced that approximately ₱12.3 billion in voucher allocations had inadvertently benefited students who did not meet the criteria for being economically marginalized.
To prevent future misallocations, the new legislation mandates that priority be given to locales suffering from severely congested public school systems, granting automatic voucher eligibility to incoming kindergarten and Grade 1 students within those jurisdictions.
Furthermore, the measure explicitly extends its coverage to graduates of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) and youths residing in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA) where public educational facilities remain scarce or non-existent.